Mexican soldiers may be closing in on the world’s most wanted drug lord

Police
officers control the traffic at a police check point on a road
leading to the municipality of Badiraguato, in the Mexican state
of Sinaloa, July 17, 2015.REUTERS/Roberto Armenta

Mexican authorities may be closing in on fugitive Sinaloa cartel
boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán four months after his
brazen escape from a maximum-security prison in central
Mexico.

According to
a report from the Mirror, “intense military operations” are
ongoing in Guzmán’s home state of Sinaloa, on Mexico’s north
Pacific coast.

Authorities believe, the Mirror reports, that "they are closing the net
on the ruthless criminal."

Mario Lopez, the Sinaloa state governor,
confirmed that Mexican military forces were carrying out
operations in the mountains of the Sierra Madre, over an area
that extends from Jesus Maria, a town north of the state
capital of Culiacan, all the way to the state borders with
Chihuahua and Durango — a region called the Golden Triangle for
its extensive drug cultivation.

“Military personnel from Mexico City are working in the zone,”
said Lopez. “You all know who they’re after.”

According to
the Mirror as well as local newspapers, Mexican marines have
searched and closed off at least 13 communities in the area,
efforts that have forced hundreds of people out of their homes.

Mexico's
Golden Triangle, a region where Sinaloa, Durango, and Chihuahua
converge, is a known locus of drug cultivation and a stronghold
of the Sinaloa cartel. The small town of Jesus Maria is roughly
midway between the state capital of Culiacan and Guzman's
hometown of Badiraguato.Google
Maps/Amanda Macias/Business Insider

The break that allowed Mexican authorities to zero in on what
they believe is the drug lord’s hideout was an intercept of
Guzmán’s phone by US drug-enforcement officials, the
Mirror has reported.

A tip from US intelligence led Mexican forces to storm a ranch in
the region’s mountains last week. They searched a farm house,
finding phones and clothing that are believed to belong
to Guzmán,
according to the Mirror.

A 'radical shift'

Phone intercepts appear to be playing an important role in
Mexican (and American) efforts to track down Guzmán.

In testimony before the Mexican senate last week, attorney
general Arely Gómez said that intercepted phone calls
had allowed the government to apprehend the pilot who supposedly
transported Guzmán out of Queretaro state, not far from
the supposedly high-security prison from which he escaped.

Mexico's
Attorney General Arely Gomez, right, shows a mugshot of drug lord
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán at a press conference shortly after his
escape in July.REUTERS/Stringer

At the time, according to columnist Raymundo Riva Palacio, the
Senators in attendance did not press Gómez on the revelation. But
as Riva Palacio writes, the information “exposed a radical shift in
the investigation,” which until then had appeared to only be
focused on the prison itself.

This information has reportedly allowed Mexican authorities map
the drug kingpin’s inner circle — a method that Popeye
Vasquez, the top hit man for infamous drug baron Pablo Escobar,
said investigators would likely use in their hunt for
"El Chapo."

Popeye, however, believed it would take 16 to 18 months to pin down Guzmán.

Guzmán's Sinaloa safety net

There's still reason to believe the wily Sinaloa chief will
once again avoid capture.

A
resident walks past the 'Chapo' roast chicken restaurant near the
main plaza of Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's hometown in the
municipality of Badiraguato, in the Mexican state of Sinaloa,
July 17, 2015.REUTERS/Roberto
Armenta

When Guzmán was arrested in February 2014, Sinaloans
poured into the streets to back him. And when his
jailbreak was reported in July, many in the state offered their praise for the cartel boss.

Guzmán may also enjoy the loyalty — or commands the obedience —
of
many local officials. After his escape rumors circulated that federal officials were
complicit in the plot. "El Chapo" might also have been trying to
curry political favor at the national level, too: Last year, a
former DEA official alleged that Guzmán
helped finance the campaign of current Mexican President
Enrique Peña Nieto.

A
protester holds a sign during a march in Mexico's Sinaloa state
to protest the arrest of "El Chapo" Guzmán in February
2014.REUTERS/Daniel
Becerril

This support network, and his sheer notoriety, may allow
Guzmán to
slip out of the cordon Mexican security forces appear to have
thrown around him.

“He controls the whole region and the communities protect him as
well,” Julio “El Tio” Martinez, who works with one of Guzmán’s
operators, told TeleSur.

Moreover, in their aggressive pursuit of Guzmán, Mexican
officials may drive more Sinaloans into allegiance with the
cartel.